Entering Split Transactions

[Buddha Buck]

In a split, the left-hand column and the right-hand column have to balance.
 In your example, you have 670+180+90+60=1000 in the left-hand column, and
1000 in the right-hand column.  That seems to balance to me.

Perhaps the confusion is coming from the column headers: the right-hand
column is shown in that screen-shot as "total withdrawal", but you aren't
doing a withdrawal of 1000, so what's the 1000 doing there?  The answer is
that while a regular "non-split" transaction shows the transaction from the
viewpoint of one account of the two affected accounts, a "split"
transaction shows the transaction from the viewpoint of all affected
accounts simultaneously.  The "Account" column for the final row (with the
$1000 "total withdrawal") shows the account "Income:Salary", which is where
you are getting the money to deposit from.  But for the "Income:Salary"
account, the right-hand column is not "total withdrawal", it's "Income"
(with the left-hand being "Charge").  It make sense for the $1000 that goes
into your checking account, taxes, etc to be recorded as "Income" from your
Income:Salary account.

There are 5 accounts in this transaction.  In one, the left-hand/right-hand
columns read "Deposit/Withdrawal", in three, they read "Expense/Rebate",
and in the last, they read "Charge/Income".  It is impossible to show all
those labels at once, so only the labels for the account in that register
(Checking) is used.  I just noticed that when selecting a split, they all
get "Tot. " prepended, which may be making things more confusing.

This is one of the reasons I, personally, use "formal accounting labels".
 For me, every left-hand column is labelled "Debit", and every right-hand
column is labeled "Credit" (or "Tot Debit/Tot Credit" with splits).  So
when I look at an analogous transaction, I can see my total debits equal my
total credits in a split, and I know that for my salary, my "After Tax"
salary is debited to my checking account and my "Before Tax" salary is
credited to my Income:Salary account.

Does this help?


On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 at 10:07 PM, Bob Qualls <bobqualls84 at gmail.com> wrote:

> As I'm trying to master entering split transactions, as demonstrated in the
> tutorial (see attachment as a location reference in the tutorial), I find
> that I have to continually clear the amount entered by default in the
> "Withdrawal" column to get the numbers to work out correctly.  Is this
> typical behavior, or am I doing something incorrectly?
>
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